Improvement in wheels for vehicles



J. S. HAMLET. Wheels fofvehicles.

, N0. 131,164, Pate.nted Se.p.10,1872.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES" s. HAMLET, or TIPPEOANOE CITY, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN WHEELS FOR VEHICLES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 131,164, dated September 10, 1872.

Specification of a Carriage-Wheel, invented by JAJi/[ES S. HAMLET, of Tippecanoe City, Miami county, Ohio.

N atnre and Objects of the Invention.

My invention is designed more particularly for carriage or wagon wheels which have a hub proper of wood, having an encircling groove, and metallic band or pair of metallic collars, through or between which the spokes pass into said groove; and my invention consists in so forming the inner ends of the spokes as to cause them to be interlocked on the principle of a tongue and groove, and providing the hub-groove opposite one or more of the spokes with indentations to receive a corresponding number of spoke-butts, in order to prevent the possibility of the spokes and bands turning when the wheel is locked.

General Description.

Figure 1 is a transverse section of a hub embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 is a sectional perspective view, showing a portion of suchhub and of a metallic collar, of which two may be used instead of the mortised band. Fig. et'is a side elevation of the central portion of my improved hub. Figs. 5 and 6 represent the tongued-and-grooved inner extremities of my spokes, with the manner of putting them together. Fig. 7 represents a modification of said spokes.

A represents the middle portion of my hub proper, and which may be of wood. The said hub has an equatorial or circumferential groove, A, whose bottom it constitutes an abutment for the inner ends of the spokes, and

one or both of whose sides has one or more indentations, a, to receive a corresponding number of spokes; the object of said indentations being to prevent the possibility of the spokes and bands turning in the hub when the wheel is locked. Except-as to said indentations, my hub does not difier essentially from other hubs having an encircling groove.

B is a customary metallic band, having mortises b, of usual form, separated by bars b, which serve to unite the two members I) b, which encircle the hub on each side of the groove A, in the manner shown; or the mem bers b b may consist of two separate collars, of which one, C, is shown fragmentally in Fig. 3, bolts, which traverse orifices c in said collars, taking the place of the bars b. The butt or inner extremities of the spokes are formed into tongues D and grooves E, so as to interlock within the groove A, as shown. The advantages of this construction of the butts of the spokes are of a very decided character over those whose portions within the hub consist of tapered tenons, whose shrinkage within the mortises causes them to work loose, and cause the wheel to become shackly; whereas, my spokes, bearing by the ends of their grain upon the periphery of the hub, are not aflected by any shrinkage of their substance, and being interlocked to each other by their tongues and grooves, and having their'fibers crossed, and being properly glued when inserted, become henceforth immovably united together as if they were a solid piece of timber, yet with the advantage over such solid or single piece of wood of having the fiber or grain with its proper longitudinal presentation in each spoke.

I reserve the right to vary from the abovedescribed illustration of my invention-for example, the butts may be halved to each other, as in Fig. 7 or, when tongued and grooved, each butt may be tongued on one side and grooved on its obverse side, so as to enable all the spokes to be made of one pattern.

Claim.

I claim herein as new and of my invention- In a banded and circumferentially-grooved wheel-hub, the combination of the spokes interlocked at their extremities within the hub, by means of tongues and grooves in the spokebutts, and one or more of said projecting spoke-butts being received by corresponding indentations in the side of the hub-groove, as

and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony of which invention I hereunto set my hand.

JAMES S. HAMLET. Witnesses:

GEO. H. KNIGHT, JAMES H. LAYMAN. 

